In the Balance
by HaloFin17
Summary: An AU for the World Race in which Gelorum decides to revise her strategy regarding Zed 36. Centered around the Wylde brothers, but everyone else is there, as well. Please enjoy, and feel free to review!
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **An AU for the World Race in which Gelorum decides to revise her strategy regarding Zed 36. Centered around the Wylde brothers, but everyone else is there, as well. Please enjoy, and feel free to review!

**Disclaimer: **I would like to start this fic off by saying that, as much as I wish I owned Kurt and Markie Wylde, I do not, and I never will.

**Author's Note: **Alright, this fic is officially off the ground now, so wish me luck! I started this over a year ago and hadn't touched it in forever, but when **Jimmy Candlestick **showed such an enthusiastic desire to see what I had so far, I couldn't refuse. Thanks for making me break this out again, Jimmy C! Also, a million, zillion thank-you's are owed to my dear friend **Kat Carbines **who just recently helped me map out a storyline so I now know where this fic is headed, more or less, from start to finish. Thank You, Schmo chica, you're amazing! And with that, I invite you to begin this journey with me and embark at Chapter 1 below. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1**

Somewhere in the middle of the desert, a man dressed in black from head to toe and wearing a black helmet that concealed his entire face exited hesitantly from his car and walked slowly to where a stern-faced woman awaited him. She, too, was dressed in black, but her face was exposed, revealing chin-length white blonde hair and icy blue eyes. She stepped away from her helicopter and came forward to greet her visitor.

"You shouldn't have come here in person," the masked man stated. "It's dangerous."

"For you, perhaps," was the woman's immediate response.

"Why did you want to see me?" His voice was uncertain, maybe even a bit shaky.

"What went wrong today?" Her piercing eyes bored into him.

He knew what she was referring to. "It's not working for me," he admitted finally. "Sabotaging other drivers."

"CLYP went through a great deal of trouble to give you this car," she replied easily with a gesture towards his sleek black automobile, "this disguise. I shouldn't have thought that simple sabotage would be too much to ask of you, Zed 36."

"I'm a good driver," Zed 36 replied with sudden firmness, "the best! I don't have to cheat to win this race."

"Keeping the Wheel of Power from Tezla is too important to leave to chance. You _will _win the race, even if you have to eliminate the other drivers to do it."

"Eliminate?" he asked haltingly.

"You know what I mean," she replied, eyes narrowing.

"And you know I won't do it." His unwavering tone now matched her own.

"Why not? I thought you said you had nothing to lose."

"I didn't." He lowered his gaze to the sand. "Not then, anyway."

"What's changed since?"

Zed 36 looked back at her and shook his head in amazement. "You don't understand, do you, Gelorum? You know what's different now! And I'm not going to risk harming him – not for you, not for money, not for anything."

Gelorum was silent for a moment, studying him closely. "Perhaps," she said at last, a slight smile playing on her lips, "we need to revise your motivation, Zed 36."

The man in black froze. "What do you mean?"

"If you succeed in bringing us the Wheel of Power," Gelorum went on, her voice calm yet deliberate, "you will still receive the same payment as was previously determined. But…" Her face grew hard, and her voice was suddenly cold. "…should you fail us and lose the Wheel, we will simply take him in its stead."

In that moment, everything changed for Zed 36. He quickly removed his helmet, disclosing handsomely chiseled features, spiky black hair, and blue eyes bright with fear.

"Gelorum, don't, please." He stared at her expressionless face, his own countenance distraught and his eyes pleading. "Do what you want with me, but leave him out of this! I didn't know he would be here, but he's done nothing to deserve your anger."

"Oh, but he has, Zed 36. His sudden appearance has become an incredible distraction for the one driver that I need to remain focused in this race. Therefore, it is now necessary for us to turn this new distraction into new focus."

The man opened his mouth to protest, but Gelorum interrupted him.

"And don't bother trying to tell him to leave now. If you lose the race, we will find him wherever he may be." She eyed the man's stricken face and smiled in a manner that was almost cruel. "Besides," she continued, "he probably wouldn't believe you even if you did warn him."

She turned and began walking back toward the helicopter before calling over her shoulder, "I suggest you get some rest while you still can, Kurt Wylde. After all, your brother's life now hangs upon the outcome of this race."

* * *

Professional driver Kurt Wylde raced back to Dr. Tezla's lonely complex, his mind and heart racing. It was after midnight now, and all the other racers were in bed asleep. The complex had been divided into five different sections so that each of the teams could have their own area in which to eat, sleep, and otherwise relax.

Kurt hurried right past his own team's rooms, though, and rushed to where his greatest rival team, the Wave Rippers, had been assigned to sleep. He was briefly grateful it was so late, for none of the other drivers would be awake to see him behave like this. Despite the new, cruel twist of events, he still wished to uphold his reputation for being tough, aggressive, and unapproachable – a loner.

Though captain of the flashy Street Breed team, Kurt Wylde often preferred to work apart from his recruited teammates. It had even occurred to him that Dan Dresden, his long-time friend and first choice of recruits, was in reality more of the team leader than he was. An extremely talented driver, Dan knew his teammates well, and he worked alongside them even better. He was an ideal racer, although he had been the one to tell Markie about the World Race.

Markie. Breathing hard, Kurt finally stopped outside his destination. He opened the door as quietly as possible, and faint light from the hallway crept into the small room, illuminating the sleeping figure of a young man still in his teenage years.

Kurt let out a heavy sigh and leaned wearily against the doorframe as he sought to quiet his rapid breathing. He ran a hand over his own tired face and walked further into the room, closely observing his younger brother as he slept. As usual, Markie lay on his stomach, the sheets crumpled in a heap at the foot of the bed, and his arms and legs were spread out wildly in all directions with an arm and one foot dangling off the bed.

Yet he was sound asleep, and his youthful face was peaceful. Markie's facial features and black hair were almost identical to Kurt's, but his skin was darker, and his eyes, rather than clear blue, were a rich, dark shade of brown. Kurt moved forward and drew the covers back up over his brother's shoulders, knowing full well that they wouldn't remain there long.

On his part, he had never understood how Markie could sleep like that, though it had made the nights when they'd had to share a bed rather interesting, if not very long and quite tiresome. Kurt grinned, remembering. Markie was just fine – for now. The smile faded, and Kurt dropped to his knees by his brother's bedside with a low groan.

"Oh, Markie," he whispered agonizingly, "Markie, what have you gotten yourself into? What have I gotten you into? Of all times and places, why did you have to suddenly show up here and now?"

Markie, of course, didn't even flinch in response, but Kurt's thoughts drifted back to two days earlier when his brother had mysteriously arrived without his knowledge and assumed the liberty of taking his car for a spin. When Kurt had discovered someone else behind the wheel of his Sling Shot, he had been ready to knock some sense into the wayward driver. And had it been anyone but Markie, he would have seriously lost his temper.

Kurt shook his head in lingering bewilderment as he remembered recognizing his kid brother when the top of the car had lifted. It had easily been one of the greatest surprises of his life. Markie had asked him for a spot on the Street Breed team, but Kurt had turned him down. Though Markie was admittedly a decent driver for not yet being even seventeen, the Street Breed team had already been full; and more importantly, Kurt had feared that Gelorum's interference would make the World Race even more dangerous than it already was.

And now, it seemed, he was right. He had hoped, for Markie's own sake, that he would go home right away. But instead, his only sibling had found a home as the final racer on Vert Wheeler's Wave Rippers team. Kurt had rejected Markie with the intention of keeping him safe.

"And a lot of good that did," Kurt muttered wryly to himself. But he knew Gelorum was right – there was little point in trying to send Markie away now. Besides, it would be better to keep his brother close by so he could keep an eye on him. But would he even be able to stop Gelorum if she decided to follow through on her threat? Somehow he doubted it. He hung his head miserably in his hands and fought frantically against the panic and helplessness that were gnawing away at him deep inside his chest. Suddenly, he lifted his head, eyes full of grim of determination.

"I won't let her hurt you, Markie," he whispered earnestly as he reached out and grasped his brother's hand in his own, certain that the sleeper would not be disturbed. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He squeezed the limp hand a little tighter. "I promise."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary: **An AU for the World Race in which Gelorum decides to revise her strategy regarding Zed 36. Centered around the Wylde brothers, but everyone else is there, as well. Please enjoy, and feel free to review!

**Disclaimer: **Still don't own 'em, so no worries.

**Author's Note: **Ok, this is unfortunately the last of the stuff that I had previously written in months past. From now on, it's gonna be all new material, and I really can't say how long updates are gonna take. Not too terribly long, I hope, but it could be difficult, especially with a major fic in another genre that's nearing its final stages. I would really like to get that one finished, but I don't want to neglect this one and leave you guys hanging, either. We'll see. I'll write wherever my inspiration takes me, lol! But before we get started, many thanks to my wonderful reviewers from the previous chapter: **Fenrir's Daughter, Torilei, Jimmy Candlestick, **and **Kat Carbines**! You guys are the best, I love you all! Now, please enjoy chapter 2, and I'll ttyl!

**Chapter 2**

"Markie!" Kurt called as he hurried up to his brother inside the complex the following morning and pulled him aside. "Do you feel okay? I'm not sure you should be going into this next leg."

Markie just stared at him for a moment, and an awkward silence lingered. "What are you talking about?" he exclaimed at last, "I feel fine!"

"Are you sure?" Kurt knew it was a poor attempt at keeping Markie out of Highway 35, but it had to be worth a shot. "You don't look so good. You're kind of pale."

"I'm just a little tired," Markie admitted, much to Kurt's surprise. "I didn't sleep too great last night."

"What do you mean?" Kurt inquired in amazement. "You were sleeping like a baby!"

"And how would you know?" Markie asked sharply in reply.

"I wouldn't," Kurt quickly covered for himself. "It's just that you always sleep like a log. Why should last night have been any different?"

"I had a weird dream last night," Markie confessed, his eyebrows knitting together, "really weird. I think it had something to do with killer robots in cars, and then Banjee was randomly there cutting their heads off with that saw thing on his car."

Kurt froze, taken aback. "Maybe you really should stay out for a while," he finally managed to say, almost to himself.

Markie shook his head, exasperated. "What's wrong with you today? Why have you suddenly decided to start mothering me? It's really annoying."

"I'm not mothering!" Kurt protested, then quickly added, "I'm just 'big-brothering' you."

"That's even worse!" Markie exclaimed as he lead them back toward the sleeping quarters and further away from the other drivers who were busy preparing their cars for the third leg of the World Race. "It's like you think I'm gonna get killed here or something."

Kurt suppressed a shudder as the new potential reality of those words hit him. "It's a very dangerous race, Markie," he said slowly as he followed his younger sibling.

When they were out of earshot of the others, Markie stopped and turned suddenly to look his brother steadily in the eyes. "If it's so dangerous," he asked, "then why are you still here?"

"That's a good question," Kurt answered quietly with a sigh. "I've been wondering the same thing myself."

"Okay, if you feel so strongly about it, let's make a deal," Markie proposed. "I'll go home if you do."

Kurt simply hung his head in reply. He would gladly have agreed if he'd thought it would do any good.

"See, I knew you would never be able to do it," Markie insisted. "You love driving too much – it's your life! You'd race anytime, anywhere, no matter what. Why is it so impossible for you to imagine that I might just feel the same way? I knew this would be a tough race, Kurt, and I knew it would be dangerous, but that didn't bug me. In fact, I thought it all sounded pretty exciting. Why else do you think I'm here?"

"I don't know!" Kurt paused. "But come to think of it, you never did tell me exactly how you got here."

"You don't want to know," Markie said quickly, "let's just leave it at that."

Kurt nodded, though he still wasn't satisfied. After a brief moment of silence, he sighed. "I'm sorry, Markie," he said softly.

"For what?" Markie asked, confused.

"For being your own brother and still not knowing all that much about you."

Markie shrugged uncertainly. "That's alright, I guess. I mean, I don't know you that well, either."

"Yeah, but I'm your big brother – I'm supposed to know."

"Okay, then, you can start by knowing this: I love driving every bit as much as you do, and I have no intention of leaving this race until it's over." He paused, and when Kurt offered no response, continued. "Now, how 'bout you tell me something."

"Like what?" came Kurt's uneasy reply.

"Like why you're suddenly acting all brotherly and concerned like this. I didn't think you cared that much."

"Of course I care! It's just that I never would have expected you to show up here, of all places."

"I can understand that, but something else weird is going on here, and I wish you would just tell me what it is."

"Do you really?"

"Yes." Markie's face was earnest. "Kurt, you of all people should know how much I hate being left in the dark."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why don't you just tell me what's really going on?"

Kurt sighed heavily. Deep down, he knew he had to tell Markie about Gelorum. And if he did, maybe Markie would even be willing to help him. After all, it was his life that was hanging in the balance.

"All right," he agreed at last, "but not here." With that, he led Markie into his nearby room, shut the door, and began his tale.

* * *

"Wow," Markie breathed some time later, his face blank with shock. "I really am gonna get killed here or something."

"No you won't!" Kurt firmly assured him, laying a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder as he sat beside him on the bed. "I promise. I'm just sorry I got you mixed up in this whole mess. But you know I would never have wanted it to be like this, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." Markie shuddered. "I'm still kinda freaked out, though. She'll really do it, won't she?"

Kurt nodded. "I had no idea she was like that, otherwise I never would have agreed to work for her. And now it's impossible to back out, not without endangering you."

There was an awkward pause before Markie finally spoke up. "We need to get that Wheel, don't we?"

"We?"

"Oh, yeah. You'd better believe I'm gonna have a say in how this all turns out. Besides, it's not gonna do me any good to just sit around and hide. I want to help you."

"Good. I was hoping you would say that. I don't know exactly what our strategy's gonna be, but we'll definitely stand a better chance working together."

"I agree, but there's still one thing I'm not sure about: what does this Gelorum lady plan to do with the Wheel of Power once we hand it over to her?"

Kurt's eyebrows furrowed together as he frowned. "I honestly don't know. She never told me. But now that I know her better, I'm sure it can't be anything good. I really don't want her to have it, but I don't know what else we can do."

"Maybe we should tell Dr. Tezla," Markie suggested hesitantly. "If anyone can help us out of this, it's him."

"I suppose so," Kurt answered slowly, "but I still don't completely trust him. And I don't think he exactly trusts me with his life, either."

"What about Dan, then? C'mon, Kurt, he's like your best friend."

But Kurt shook his head. "No. I don't want to tell Tezla or the other drivers about all this – not yet, anyway. Not unless we absolutely have to."

"Fine. But what are we gonna do, then?"

The elder Wylde sighed heavily, yet he appeared deep in thought. "I know this is a bit off topic, Markie, but are Mom and Dad still in Australia? I think I'd just feel better going into all this if I knew they were far away."

"Oh yeah, otherwise I would never have gotten here. And don't ask!" he again added vehemently before his brother could say anything. "Trust me, you don't want to know!"

"Alright, fine," Kurt conceded. "But how long until they get back?"

"They said they were gonna be gone for over a month, so we've got at least two weeks left before they're back in the country."

"Good, that should be plenty of time. I can't imagine this race will go on much longer than that." Kurt grew silent then but laughed suddenly.

"What?" Markie asked, eyeing his brother suspiciously.

Kurt shook his head. "I just still can't believe Mom and Dad would leave you alone for a whole month!"

The teen grinned. "Me either, really. But it _is_ summer, after all, Kurt. They just said not to get arrested, not to get myself or anyone else killed, and to have the house nice and clean like they left it by the time they got back." He sighed, looking more than a little disheartened. "And now here I am, driving in a race that's liable to get me killed."

"But at least the house will still be clean," Kurt offered in a weak and rather ill-timed attempt at humor.

Markie looked up at him incredulously, then cracked a grin.

"Oh, great," he replied sardonically, "thanks."

"No problem. It's my pleasure."

"Yeah, I'm sure it is."

Kurt laughed and playfully shoved his brother aside as he moved past him.

"Come on," he said, his expression again growing somber. "The next leg is gonna start soon, so we'd better get back out there. Meet me back here later tonight. We've got some serious planning to do."

Markie gravely nodded his agreement and followed his brother back outside. It was going to be a long day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary: **An AU for the World Race in which Gelorum decides to revise her strategy regarding Zed 36. Centered around the Wylde brothers, but everyone else is there, as well. Please enjoy, and feel free to review!

**Disclaimer: **Nope, the boys still aren't mine. So very sad.

**Author's Note: **Yay, I actually have something for you guys in a somewhat timely fashion! How exciting! But wow, this fic totally has mood swings - or maybe I just do, lol. Let's see, we went from dark and threatening in Chapter 1, to brotherly fluff in chapter 2, and now...well, you'll just have to wait and see. Once again, a thousand thank you's to my fantastic reviewers: **Jimmy Candlestick **and **Fenrir's Daughter**, as lovingly always. Also, welcome **The Ginger Muffins** to the world of AcceleRacers fandom, and a special shout-out to **Walking Weirdo**, who I haven't heard from since writing my older AcceleRacers fanfics. Great to hear from all you guys, thank you! And an extra-special thank you to **Kat Carbines** for helping me with some of the details of this chapter...and with the whole rest of the story, too, lol. Luv all you guys, so enjoy this chapter, and I'll ttyl!

**Chapter 3 **

Kurt Wylde hit the ground with a hard thud as his car was spewed out of the portal and back into a normal dimension. The luscious green grass beneath him and glistening blue of the ocean on his left were welcome sights indeed after the hot desert sands of the third leg of the World Race. But a far more welcome sight was the one that awaited directly ahead of him.

Kadeem stood staring down at the back of his car, his head hung low and his shoulders slumped in quiet defeat. Kurt, on the other hand, couldn't have been happier. Kadeem had beaten him in more ways than one to obtain what they had both thought was the invaluable Wheel of Power. His secretive identity as Zed 36 had almost been betrayed, as well, and surely would have been had he not ducked away from Kadeem's well-placed kick at the last possible second. That instinct had allowed him to preserve his anonymity as the mysterious driver in black, but it had also cost him the Wheel – or so he had thought.

Now garbed once again in the bright colors of his Street Breed team, Kurt pulled his car up behind Kadeem's and casually leaned his head out the window. Apart from getting his first car, he could remember fewer sights that brought him more happiness than the bluish residue that now spread across the back of his opponent's car. The Wheel they had both chased so desperately had been a fake – little more than a decoy left behind by the AcceleRons.

"Hey, Kadeem," he called out with perfectly feigned innocence. "What happened here?"

The African driver looked over at him sadly. "I thought I had found the Wheel and would be able to claim the prize money," he explained in a subdued tone. "But I was wrong. It wasn't real – it vanished when I came back through the portal."

"Man, that's a shame," Kurt replied, barely able to keep the sarcasm from his voice and the smirk from his face. "Better luck next time, I guess."

Yet those words were anything but heartfelt, and the Street Breed captain sped off toward Dr. Tezla's headquarters, Kadeem's dark eyes glaring daggers into the back of his head all the way. But Kurt couldn't have cared less, for even after a hectic day in Highway 35 that had included more than one close call, all was well. The other drivers were still unaware of his alter-ego, the Wheel of Power was still out there for the taking, and Markie was still safe.

* * *

A couple of hours later, after Kurt had taken a shower and cleaned the sand from his car, he was heading back to his room with every intention of taking a quick nap before Markie arrived, when he was suddenly waylaid by an old friend.

"I didn't see you on the track much today, Kurt," Dan Dresden commented as he fell into step beside his team captain. "Were you up ahead of the rest of us?"

"I think so," Kurt answered, trying to be as discreet as possible and hoping he could still hide his uneasiness from someone who had known him for nearly eight years. "I just got a little…sidetracked there at the end."

Dan slowly nodded. "We were back with Vert and the Wave Rippers for most of the time. Ya know, that kid's better than we give him credit for."

Kurt rolled his eyes, incredulous. "Don't you go over to the dark side on me now, too, Dresden," he reprimanded. "There's a reason you're on _my _team."

"Which brings me to why I came looking for you," the blonde racer continued after a quick chuckle. "Vert and Markie have challenged us to a game of ping-pong."

Kurt abruptly stopped short in his tracks and turned to lock his companion in a disbelieving stare. "What?"

"Apparently, Vert and Markie found an old ping-pong table in Tezla's rec room, and they've challenged you and me to a match."

"But why?" the eldest Wylde persisted, still in a sore state of shock at such an obscure request.

Dan shrugged. "I guess they're just looking for some bragging rights since it'll be Wave Rippers against Street Breed. But we can handle the little punks, Kurt. You and I used to be pretty good at ping-pong, remember?"

"Yeah, but why would we want anyone to know that?" Kurt argued. "And besides, that was back in high school, Dresden. You and I haven't been good at much else besides driving since then."

"I know, but this is a team rivalry we're talking about here, Kurt. If they beat us, or if we back down, we'll never hear the end of it. And you know how mouthy your brother gets – you wouldn't want him holding that over our heads for the rest of the race, would you?"

"No!" Kurt readily concurred. "He's annoying enough as it is."

"So, are you comin'?"

The Street Breed captain sighed and ran a weary hand over his face, but he nevertheless conceded. "Ok, fine – I'll go. But I'd still like to get to bed at a decent hour, so let's try to get this over with quickly, alright?"

The two friends redirected their course back toward the center of the complex, and Dan grinned mischievously. "With pleasure."

* * *

They arrived at the common rec room a short while later and entered to find Vert warming up at their future battlefield with Lani as his distinctly unenthused opponent.

"C'mon, Lani," Vert was saying as the young Hawaiian woman nonchalantly tapped the small white ball right back to him. "Give me somethin' challenging! Don't worry, I promise I'll go easy on ya, since you're a girl and all."

Lani's expression changed instantly from one of disinterest to one of spite, and when Vert sent the next ball her way, she promptly whacked it as though it were a Major League fastball, and the ping-pong paddle her bat. The tiny sphere hurtled back to the blonde surfer with stunning speed and promptly smacked him in the middle of the forehead before he could even attempt to return it.

"Ah!" Vert cried out in surprise and took an involuntary step backward, hand automatically going up to his head as the impact continued to resonate through his skull. Naturally, everyone else present burst out into fits of hysterical laughter.

"That's what you get for dragging me into this in the first place," Lani told him smugly before dropping her paddle on the table and sitting down contentedly on a nearby sofa from where she could observe the action to come.

"Lani, I think you dented the ball on his head," Markie managed to say around his gasps of laughter as he held up the white object for inspection.

"Yeah, probably cuz there's nothing up there but rocks," Alec joined in the teasing and playfully tapped Vert on the head, much to his friend's annoyance.

"Lay off, guys!" the young skater exclaimed, angrily pushing Alec's hand away. He gingerly fingered the tender spot appearing on his forehead. "I hope this doesn't bruise."

"Looks like you learned that lesson the hard way, Surf Rat," Kurt commented as he and Dan stepped fully into the room and made their presence known.

"Yeah," Vert admitted dejectedly and threw a cautious glance over at his Hawaiian teammate. "Sorry, Lani," he apologized. She just smiled.

"Hey, good, you guys are here," Markie spoke up, beckoning the two older drivers up to the ping-pong table. "If Vert's conscious now, we can get started."

"I never thought a ping-pong ball could hurt so much," Vert was lamenting, but Dan put an end to that pity party in short order.

"Quit crying, Kid, or we'll give you something to cry about," he warned, quite confident that his partner would be only too happy to assist him in such an endeavor.

Vert then seemed to recover with near miraculous speed, and the epic ping-pong match of the World Race was soon under weigh in full force. As Kurt had hoped, it was a relatively quick affair, and the two Wave Ripper teens were dealt a decisive defeat by their Street Breed rivals.

"You guys suck," Markie moped, discarding his paddle and sinking down into a beanbag chair. "And that one in the corner was totally out!"

"You're just a sore loser," Kurt gloated. "Like always."

Markie then made a rather rude face in his brother's general direction, to which Kurt only rolled his eyes. Some things in this life just never changed.

"Hey, Kurt," Dan called suddenly, and the other drivers looked to see him pushing the ping-pong table up against the nearest wall. "Remember this?"

A grin broke over Kurt's face, and he deliberately shook his head. "Yeah, I remember that, Dresden."

"What're you guys talkin' about?" Alec asked, looking on with bemused interest.

"It's 'wall-pong'," Dan answered with a grin, then motioned for Kurt to take a position on the opposite side of the table.

Vert laughed out loud. "Wall _what_?"

"Wall-pong," Dan repeated. "It's just like regular ping-pong, except you can play off this wall here. It's actually pretty tricky." He then proceeded to demonstrate by serving a ball to Kurt who returned it by bouncing it off the wall and back onto the table.

"So when did you two get to be so good at this?" The inquiry came from Japanese racer Taro Kitano who had joined Lani on the couch sometime during the match and now had an arm draped rather possessively around her slim shoulders.

Kurt deftly hit a ball back to his friend so that it just hit the edge of the table and answered, "Dresden's parents had a ping-pong table in their basement, and we would play after we had finished working on our cars or in between races."

"_Street _races," Markie put in accusingly.

"Of course we street raced," Kurt retorted, "and it's not like you never have, either, Little Brother, so I wouldn't be talking. Besides, what else were we supposed to do at seventeen? Drop out of school and try to enter a Grand Prix? Mom and Dad would've killed me."

"Yeah they would've!" the younger Wylde agreed emphatically. "They freaked out bad enough when you did that in college. But at least you were eighteen then."

"Nineteen," Kurt corrected him tersely, then abruptly caught the ping-pong ball in his left hand, signifying an end to the night's festivities.


End file.
